Invitation to IPBES meetings - update

News Date: 20 Feb 2017

Dear IPBES Stakeholder,
As mentioned by the Executive Secretary in her letter of 2 February (http://eepurl.com/cAdLm1), the IPBES secretariat is convening (with technical support from IUCN and facilitated by the Open-Ended Network of IPBES stakeholders) a one-day stakeholder meeting on Monday, 6 March 2017 at the World Conference Centre in Bonn, Germany, in advance of the fifth session of the IPBES Plenary, being held from 7-10 March.
We would like to thank all stakeholders who have already registered to attend the Stakeholder Day – and remind everyone who has not yet done so of the 28 February deadline. To register please click here http://www.ipbes.net/eform/submit/ipbes-5-stakeholder-day.
If you wish to be part of Stakeholder Day but are unable to make it to Bonn in person, the discussions and presentations (excluding only the afternoon breakout groups from 14:00-15:30) will be webcast live from 09:00-17:15 Bonn time (CET). The webcast will allow remote participants to contribute comments and questions to the discussions. We would appreciate your assistance in promoting, among your associates and networks, this key opportunity to engage with IPBES. No registration will be necessary to join the webcast and the live-stream will be accessible here: http://www.ipbes.net/webcast-ipbes-5.
The secretariat has also received a number of queries about access and accreditation. To clarify: registration to attend Stakeholder Day is separate from the accreditation and registration process for the IPBES Plenary session. Successful registration for Stakeholder Day does not grant access to the Plenary session. Delegates and accredited observers to the Plenary session are most welcome to attend Stakeholder Day, and will be able to do so without any additional registration required.
We have also been asked about opportunities to highlight IPBES-related initiatives. Display boards will be made available by the secretariat for this purpose. Interested individuals and organizations are invited to apply to erect posters on the boards. These posters should showcase IPBES-related work, achievements, initiatives and information (for example on pollination or land degradation). Posters should not be smaller than A3 in size (29.7 x 42.0 cm) and not larger than A1 (59.4 x 84.1 cm). They should also be ‘portrait’ in terms of layout/orientation (‘landscape’ format will not be accepted). Only one poster per organizer/organization will be accepted. Posters will be displayed during the entire duration of the Stakeholder Day and Plenary session (from the 6th March to the 10th March 2017). All posters will require the pre-approval of the IPBES secretariat and only approved posters will be displayed. IPBES will not be responsible for printing of the posters, however, to avoid delay, we encourage you to please submit an electronic copy of your poster design and include in your submission your name and country/institutional affiliation to Ms. Sarah Banda-Genchev at sarah.banda-genchev@ipbes.net
On a related note, a session will be held during the Stakeholder Day in which stakeholders will be able to showcase work undertaken to promote IPBES and its outputs. Organizations or individuals interested in doing so should please provide information on their initiatives, activities and stakeholder work in support of the work programme and deliverables, including promotion of IPBES assessments and products (avoiding reporting on purely administrative work) using the template here: http://www.ipbes.net/ipbes-5-stakeholder-day.
Finally, we would like to remind all friends of IPBES that the Stakeholder Day and Plenary session will be promoted through social media using the #IPBES5 tag – your support and contributions to the growing online dialogue would be much appreciated.
See you at IPBES-5!
With thanks and best regards,
Robert Spaull
Head of Communications
Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)